The Beginning's the Best Place to Start
by Elena of the Turks
Summary: Set in-game. The stress of saving the world has become too much for some. Vincent sheds some light on the reason why he joined Avalanche, and the real truth of what happened 30 years ago, to a restless Tifa. Slight VincentxTifa and VincentxLucrecia
1. Midnight Melodies

**AN:** Hello there people, especially those lovely individuals from ACF. This is my first fanfic; the first of many hopefully. I know it's short but there's more to come...

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**Disclaimer:** I own nothing in this story, except for most of the plot and the crazy things I get these wonderful characters to say! **

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**Chapter 1: Midnight Melodies **

_What is that?,_ she thought whilst lying in her bed. It wasn't the first time she had heard the faint sound of music playing in the middle of the night. It wasn't the first time she had awoken in the middle of the night because of a bad dream either. In fact, Tifa had been having bad dreams a lot recently, ever since Cloud had said that Avalanche would be entering the Northern Crater soon, in pursuit of the Great Sephiroth. The thought of this monster brought a shiver down Tifa's spine and back to reality, which allowed the melody to become clearer to her.

_Where is that tune coming from? _With that thought, Tifa climbed out of bed, slipped into a robe and crept down the corridor of the Rocket Town Inn. It wasn't very often that the group stayed in inns, they all normally stayed aboard the Highwind, but this time around, Cid had warned everyone to 'stay the hell out of his ship' as he had some major repairs to do before setting of up north.

Without further delay, Tifa found herself standing before a large oak door. It was the door to the main lounge area, and also to the haunting melody that had captured her conscious mind. With a slight knock at the door and minor hesitation, Tifa entered the warm, glowing room.

"Hello", she called as she walked into the fire-lit room.

"I wondered how long it would take you to enter."

As Tifa turned around to find the source of this beautifully smooth voice, she found herself staring at the grand piano, as well as its pianist.

"Oh Vincent, it's only you," sighed Tifa.

"Who else were you expecting?" replied Vincent, "Shouldn't you be sleeping Miss Lockheart?" He had stopped playing by now and sat staring at Tifa instead. Blood red eyes surveying her burgundy ones.

"I guess I could say the same thing to you," she replied giving a small smile.

"I suppose you could." Tifa was sure she could see a smile aimed back at her, but wasn't sure as the collar of his red cape covered the bottom half of his pale white face.

Then there was silence. Only the crackling of the coal on the fire could be heard. Tifa could feel the air in the room getting heavier.

"I, umm, didn't know you played the piano." The room suddenly felt slightly lighter now.

"I don't. Well, not as much as I used to." With that, Vincent held up his left arm, all of which remained of it anyway. Instead of skin and bone, there was a shiny bronze appendage. "I didn't wake you did I?"

Tifa could feel his red eyes borrowing their way into her soul as her eyes lingered upon Vincent's metal arm. With a shake of her head she replied, "No, no, I… well, I couldn't sleep. Listen, you don't mind if I stay with you for a while do you? It's just, well, I can't seem to settle with all of this going on, you know."

"You can rest where you like, Miss Lockheart," replied Vincent, as he watched Tifa lure herself out of the doorway and into the leather sofa in front of the fireplace.

She placed herself into the sofa carefully, trying not to disturb Vincent anymore than she already had. "You can keep playing if you'd like, don't let me stop you," she said as she quickly glanced over to Vincent, who had remained sitting at the piano the whole time.

Vincent kept his eyes upon Tifa. "I no longer feel the need to play," he said as he stood up and walked over to the leather chair. Once he reached it, he quietly sat down.

Then there was silence once again. Both Tifa and Vincent stared at the lit fireplace; both of them were captured by the flickering lights and the gentle heat that radiated from it.

Tifa didn't like these type of long silences, they just felt do uncomfortable to her. She couldn't help but fidget a bit in her seat and ask the first question that popped into her mind. "How come you're awake as well? Couldn't you sleep either?" A thought then occurred to her that Vincent may never sleep, but at that moment she remembered him sleeping just the once. It was a few nights ago actually, when the group had returned from Midgar. They had just defeated Hojo and Vincent stated that he wanted some time alone. Tifa, being curious by nature, went to check that he was ok and caught him sleeping like a baby in his room aboard the Highwind. She could remember how peaceful he looked, and innocent. This brought another smile to Tifa's face.

He wondered for a brief moment why Tifa was smiling at him like a little school girl, but dismissed it as lack of sleep. "I too, have been restless lately Miss Lockheart," replied Vincent.

Taken aback by this, Tifa responded, "Really?" She was slowly getting used to Vincent, and his rather strange, yet silent ways. They had often spoken on board the Highwind between destinations, and just when she thought she had him summed up, he goes and says something completely unexpected. She wondered to herself briefly if Vincent was in a talkative mood since he too was restless. To find out she recovered her last response with, "You want to talk about it?" He kept staring at her. "Are you still thinking about what happened in Midgar, with Hojo I mean?" As soon as the name Hojo was mentioned, Vincent quickly broke eye contact and looked at the fireplace, his face lit with the reflection of dancing flames. _Dammit Tifa, just stick your nose in and hit a nerve why don't you, _she thought to herself. "I'm sorry; I usually put my foot in it."

"You have no need to apologise," muttered Vincent, as his gaze travelled up from the fire and back down again to his hand.

Silence, once again. Tifa watched as Vincent curled and uncurled his metal fingers, and waited for the question that he was pondering over to ask. At the second that this particular thought passed Tifa's mind, Vincent looked up and directly into Tifa's eyes, "Perhaps I could ask you a question, if I may?"

_Ha, I knew it_, she thought, and smiled at her mental joke. "Umm, ok, sure."

"What is the exact reason for why this mission is unsettling for you, Miss Lockheart?" he curiously asked.

The question took Tifa by surprise. She instantly lowered her gaze to her lap and muttered "Sephiroth…" Once again she looked up into Vincent's eyes and continued, "I keep seeing him in my dreams. We fail to stop him and meteor…"

"We will not fail our mission," he said this sternly and with a look of determination on his face.

"I hope you're right." The couple continued to stare at one another, trying to read what the other was thinking. Either that or they were both on the verge of dosing off! Tifa smiled and Vincent couldn't help but do the same. The smile was only small, and Tifa couldn't see it, but it was there.

Feeling slightly awkward in this cosy situation, Vincent decided to leave the scene. "I do feel a bit tired now actually, I think I'll try to get some sleep. Perhaps you should do the same" he said as he lifted himself out of his chair. He then hastily walked out of the room, but before leaving the doorway, he turned back to face Tifa and said, "Goodnight Miss Lockheart, sweet dreams."

"Please, call me Tifa. There's no need for formalities," smiled Tifa. "Goodnight Vincent."

Vincent nodded in compliance and then left the room. The smile that had remained on his face grew slightly wider as he walked down the corridor towards his bedroom.

The smile also remained on Tifa's face, just before she lay her head down on the sofa and drifted off to sleep.


	2. You Come Here Often?

**AN:** Finally an update... damn work takes over my life tut! Anyway enjoy! The plot begins to thicken and sets itself up for a major outburst in Chapt 3. You'll be hearing from me soon xx

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing in this story, except for most of the plot and the crazy things I get these wonderful characters to say!

**Chapter 2: You Come Here Often?**

Another night of nightmares. Another night of awakening in a cold sweat and in a foreign place. Another night of hearing a haunting melody echoing through the corridors of the Rocket Town Inn. A feeling of deja-vou passed over Tifa for a second, and then once again as she slipped on her robe and wondered down the same corridor to the same room she first wondered to a week ago, and every night since then. Silently as she could, Tifa opened the door and slid into the warm room.

"Another restless night I see, Miss Lockheart," It was more of a statement rather than a question. His voice was smooth and completely emotionless, even though Tifa could swear that she had heard a small chuckle in his voice as he greeted her.

"Yeah, I guess so," she replied, chuckling herself at her next response." I also guess that the same applies to you too, Mr Valentine!" His name slid easily off her tongue, and she smirked as she walked slowly over to Vincent who was seated at the piano. She had noticed that Vincent no longer wore his cloak, as he had not wore it for the past two nights either. Inside she was beaming as she remembered the first night she saw him without it on. She was astonished at how handsome he was. She remembered telling him that, it's funny, the things that people say because of lack of sleep sometimes mean nothing, but she meant every word of that. A grin stretched across her face at that moment. _Could it be that he no longer wore his cloak because of me? Nah! _

"Is it alright if I join you, I know this one?" she asked as she carefully perched herself next to him on the bench.

"Of course," his silky voice replied. He watched as she placed her nimble fingers over the keys; her soft strokes echoed the ones that Vincent played.

"You're quite good at this," Vincent observed.

"Only quite!?" asked Tifa, glancing up to see a smirk on his face. "My mother taught me to play, before she died that is. I haven't played since then."

"It's amazing isn't it? They're really are things that you cannot forget," whispered Vincent. At the same time, the couple took their hands away from the piano keys and placed them on their laps. "Why are you here again Miss Lockheart?" he asked, looking deep into her eyes as if trying to read her like a book.

"I couldn't sleep again," she answered, "I keep having the same dream, the one I told you about last time, about Sephiroth, where he succeeds in his plans. Only this time we help him. Cloud, in particular, fights against me… and so do you"

"Me?" enquired Vincent, quickly hiding his surprised expression.

"Yes," replied Tifa, "I know it's stupid and it _is _just a dream but… ah, never mind."

"But what?" he asked, "You can tell me, Tifa."

_Did he just call me Tifa?_ she thought. With that, she looked up at him and continued. "It sounds silly," she laughed, "I feel as though I'm losing all of you, and I'm scared that I might, I mean if we don't succeed…"

"I told you before, we will succeed. We have to," interrupted Vincent.

"And then what? We'll all split up, get back to our lives, and what? I've become close to all of you, even the cool-headed Mr Valentine," she chuckled. This made Vincent's eyes widen slightly and he looked away to hide the smile that was beginning to appear on his ashen face. "I think what I'm trying to say is that I have nothing to go back to. My bar was destroyed, my hometown is a lie, and then there's…"

"Cloud," said Vincent, finished Tifa's sentence for her.

"Yeah," she sighed. "He will never feel for me what I feel for him will he?" She looked up again at Vincent, her eyes were beginning to water and she was taking in deep breaths.

In answer to her question Vincent replied, "These things take time." He carefully stood up from the piano bench and slowly walked over to the leather chair in the middle of the room, at the same time elaborating his response. "He has a lot on his mind at the moment."

"I know," she sighed. Tifa watched him as he strolled across the room; her burgundy eyes watched his every move. She watched how he gracefully shifted his body weight; so silent, and they way in which his ebony hair flowed behind him.

"You are having doubts?" he enquired even though he already knew the answer. "You are afraid that you will lose him to Sephiroth, or even worse, lose him because of your feelings. That is why he fights against you in your dreams, is it not?" His red eyed stared straight into hers. He had hit it in one.

"I never thought about it like that," she whispered. Everything was now so clear to her.

"Tifa, why do you fight? Is it to be with Cloud? You already said yourself that you have nothing else left," asked Vincent. His eyes remained on her face. Tifa felt slightly embarrassed of being in the spotlight all of a sudden, answering all of these personal questions to a man who she still knew nothing about, but yet, she answered anyway hoping for a chance to get him to open up a little more. It would do him good.

"It was at first, but now I think I fight for the sake of it. To be apart of a group again, like I was when Avalanche first began. I guess that I don't want to be alone in the end you know, it the worst ever does happen." Tifa now felt a bit better. The whole 'being honest with yourself' thing really does work. She sighed with relief and thought, _now's my chance… ask him something._ With that thought, she took a deep breath and asked, "Why do you fight? I get the reasons why all of the others fight, except you"

"I'm here because I choose to be," he simply said.

"Aww come on Vincent, there's more to it than that. There's got to be," whined Tifa, "I've told you about my life up to yet, about Sephiroth and why I'm here. I think it's only fair you do the same." Whilst she was lecturing Vincent, she leapt up from the piano bench and jumped onto the sofa.

"There is nothing to tell," replied Vincent, keeping his expression as serious as he could. He was unable to do this, however, after the show that Tifa had just performed, so a little smile crept through the mask. She had acted just like a child; curious and innocent. Quite a change after what had been said earlier.

With a grin on her face as well and a slight redness to her cheeks she asked, "Do you have any family around or anybody you knew from… before?" The smile on her face soon faded as she tried to imagine what Vincent's life must have been like before.

The smile quickly vanished from Vincent's face also. It had now been replaced by his expressionless mask, but before that, Tifa could have swore she saw a hint of something… sadness perhaps.

"No," replied Vincent harshly, and after much hesitation. His eyes had wondered the room before he answered.

"Then why? You've got your revenge," asked Tifa. Her tone was also very serious now.

"It was never about revenge," hollered Vincent, "I need to atone for my sins."

"Sins? What sins?" asked Tifa, voice raised to match Vincent's.

"Fortunately, it does not concern you," he snapped. He then began to fidget in his chair, an obvious sign that he was uncomfortable to where this conversation was leading. With that declaration of body language, Tifa knew that it was time to drop the subject. She didn't really want to fall out with Vincent over the past, something she knew could not be changed no matter how much one might want it to.

"It's ok Vincent," she said sympathetically, "I just want you to know that I'm here, if you ever want to talk that is. It's the least you can do since you've listened to all of my problems."

"Thank you, Tifa." It was short and sweet, and accompanied by a small smile. He meant it.

"You're welcome," said Tifa, returning the smile. "If you need me I'll be in my room, ok?"

"Ok," nodded Vincent.

Tifa nodded back and stood up to return to her room. It had been a long night and she was getting very tired. She was just glad that she had finally told Vincent that she will be his shoulder to cry on if need be. As she walked down the corridor she thought_, I wonder if he will ever take me up on this offer. I guess only time will tell._


End file.
